The backbiting has already started. When Mark Littlewood was named as the new boss of the Institute of Economic Affairs, I was among those who sighed with relief. The IEA had totally lost direction and politicians had stopped listening to it. As a fan of the organisation, I was relieved that such a media-savvy figure – once the Lib Dems' Head of Media – had been given the top job.

But the whingers in the think tank world disagree. Even before he starts his job, they bitch about his appointment at the events they attend for the free wine. They think he's a troublemaker who lacks scholarly credentials. Meanwhile, workers at the Institute of Economic Affairs itself await their new boss with dread because they fear redundancies. And, given Littlewood's reportedly six-figure salary, his rivals for the job feel pig sick. One applicant rang me at night to complain bitterly at at the "unfairness" of his non-appointment, claiming that another failed applicant had "poisoned" the IEA's board against him.

So is Littlewood a troublemaker and is he unscholarly? Let's be honest here: the people who make those accusations want a bore to run the place. They forget that the late Lord Harris of High Cross, the IEA's original boss, was himself a colourful character. In fact, Littlewood and Harris are very similar characters, both prolific smokers and great publicists who enjoy the perversity of what they propose.

As a libertarian Liberal Democrat (albeit one who's handed back his membership card to take the job), Littlewood will make the IEA more attractive to the Cameroonies, who resented the IEA's fusty attachment to yesterday's men such as David Davis and its flirtation with the Better Off Out crowd. And although Littlewood is no intellectual lightweight – he read PPE at Balliol – he has a formidable Editorial Director, Professor Philip Booth, to ensure that the institute's academic standards are maintained.

Littlewood's appointment is really a case of returning to the sort of leadership that the IEA enjoyed in its heyday. He has a rough few months ahead of him, fighting to regain its profile and raise new funding. But he is just the medicine the IEA needs.